We have already mentioned the different nations who inhabit the northern part of Africa, from the Mediterranean to the Tropic. All those beyond the Tropic, from the Red Sea to the Ocean, an extent of country about 100 or 150 leagues wide, are a species of Moors, though so swarthy, that they appear to be almost black. The men, in particular, are exceedingly brown; the women are a little fairer, well-made, and tolerably beautiful. Among those Moors, there is a vast number of Mulattoes, who are of a still deeper black; because they are born of Negroe women whom the Moors purchase, and with whom they have many children.* Beyond this territory, under the 17th or 18th de- [132] gree of north latitude, we find the Negroes of Senegal and of Nubia, both on the coast of the western ocean and that of the Red Sea; and them, from the 18th degree of north to the 18th of south latitude, the whole inhabitants of Africa, excepting the Ethiopians or Abyssinians, are perfectly black. Thus the portion of the globe allotted by Nature to this race of men, contains an extent of territory parallel to the Equator, of about 900 leagues in breaedth, and considerably more in length, especially northward of the Equinoctial line. But, beyond the 18th or 20th degree of south latitude, the natives are no longer Negroes, as shall be evinced when we describe the Caffres and Hottentots.
We have long been deceived with regard to the colour and features of the Ethiopians, because they have confounded with their neighbours the Nubians, who are a different race of people. Marmol tell us, that the Ethiopians are perfectly black, and that they have large faces and flat noses;* and the Dutch travellers give the same description of these people.+ The truth, however, is, that the Ethiopians differ from the Nubians both in colour and features. The natural colour of the Ethiopians is brown or olive, like that of the southern Arabs, from whom they probably derive their origin. They are tall, and have regular features, fine eyes, [133] well proportioned noses, thin lips, and white teeth. But the Nubians have flat noses, thick prominent lips, and their visages are extremely black.* These Nubians, like their western neighbours, are a species of Negroes, very similar to those of Senegal.
The Ethiopians are a half polished people. They wear garments of cotton and of silk. Their houses are low and ill built. In the culture of their lands they are extremely negligent; because the citizens and common people are despised, oppressed, and plundered by the nobles. Each of these classes live separate from each other in their own villages or hamlets. Their country produces no salt, and the people purchase it for an equal weight of gold. They are fond of crude meat; and, in their feasts, the second course, which they regard as the most delicate, consists of flesh entirely raw. Though they have vines, they make no wine; and their only beverage is a sour composition of tamarinds and water. They travel on horses, and use mules for transporting their merchandize. Their knowledge of the arts and sciences is extremely limited; for their language is without rule, and their manner of writing is so imperfect, that they require several days to write an epistle, though their characters are more beautiful than those of the Arabians.+ Their mode of salutation is singular: [134] They take one another by the right hand, and mutually apply it to their mouths; the saluter then takes off the scarf of the person he salutes, and wraps it round his own body, by which the other is left half naked; for most of the Ethiopians wear only this scarf and a pair of cotton drawers.+
Admiral Drake, in his voyage round the world, mentions a fact, which, though singular, appears not to be incredible. On the frontiers of the desart [sic] of Ethiopia, he ramarks, there are men called Acridophagi, or locust-eaters, who are black, meagre, extremely nimble, and of small stature. In the spring-season, infinite numbers of locust are transported into their country by certain hot winds which blow from the west. Having neither cattle nor fish, they are obliged to live upon these locusts, which they amass in vast quantities: They cure them with salt, and preserve them for food during the whole year. This wretched nourishment produces very strange effects: They people hardly reach the age of 40 years; and, when they approach to this period of life, winged insects3 are engendered under their skin, which at first create a violent itching, and soon multiply so amazingly that their whole flesh swarms with them. They begin with devouring the belly, then the breast, and proceed in their ravages till they eat the whole flesh from the bones. Thus are those men, whom [135] nature forces to feed upon insects, devoured in their turn by them. If this fact were well attested, it would afford ample scope for reflection.
In Ethiopia, and in that tract of land which stretches to Cape Cardufu, there are vast desarts [sic]. This country, which may be regarded as the most easterly part of Ethiopia, is almost entirely uninhabited. To the south, Ethiopia is bounded by the Bedwins, and some other nations, who observe the Mahometan law; a circumstance which corroborates the opinion, that the Ethiopians have originated from the Arabians. These two people are only separated by the Straits of Babelmandel. It is probable, therefore, that the Arabians had formerly invaded Ethiopia, and obliged the natives of that country to retire to the northern parts of Nubia. The Arabians have even spread themselves along the coasts of Melinda; for the inhabitants of those coasts are tawny, and follow the religion of Mahomet.* Even in Zanguebar, the natives are not black; most of them speak the Arabic language; and they wear cotton stuffs. This country, though under the Torrid Zone, is not excessively hot; and the hair of the natives is black and crisped like that of the Negroes.+ Upon the whole of this coast, as well as at Mosambique and Madagascar, we meet with some white men, who, it is alledged, came originally from China, and settled there, when the Chinese were accu- [136] stomed to sail over all the eastern seas, in the same manner as they are now navigated by the Europeans. Though this opinion be problematical, it is certain, that the nations of this eastern coast of Africa are black, and that they tawny or white people found there have come from other countries.
But, to form a just idea of the varieties which occur among these black nations, requires a more minute examination.
From comparing the testimonies of travellers, it, in the first place, appears, that the varieties among the blacks are equally numerous as those among the whites. The blacks, as well as the whites, have their Tartars and their Circassians. The natives of Guiney are extremely ugly, and have an insufferable odour: Those of Sofala and of Mosambique are beautiful, and have no bad smell. It is, therefore, necessary to divide the blacks into different races; and, I think, they may be reduced to two principal races, that of the Negroes, and that of the Caffres. Under the first I comprehend the blacks of Nubia, of Senegal, of Cape Verd, of Gambia, of Sierra-leona, of the Teeth and Gold Coasts, of that of Juda, Benin, Gabon, Loango, Congo, Angola, and of Benguela, as far as Cape Negro. Under the second, I include all the nations from Cape Negro to the point of Africa, where they assume the name of Hottentots, and all those on the eastern coast, within the same latitude, as the terri- [137] tories of Natal, of Sofala, of Monomotapa, of Mosambique, of Melinda: The blacks of Madagascar and of the neighbouring islands are likewise Caffres, and not Negroes. These two races of men have a greater resemblance to each other in colour than in their features, hair, skin, or smell: Their manners and natural dispositions are likewise very different.
On a closer examination of the different people of which each of these races consist, we shall find as many varieties among the blacks as a among the whites, and an equal number of shades from brown to black, as we have found from brown to white in the other race.
We shall begin with the countries to the north of Senegal, and, proceeding along the coasts, we shall consider the different nations which have been recognised and described by travellers. In the first place, it is certain, that the natives of the Canary islands are not Negroes; for we are assured by voyagers, that the antient inhabitants of these islands were tall, well made, and of a vigorous complexion; that the women were beautiful, and had fine hair; and that the inhabitants of the southern parts of each island were more olive than those on the northern parts.* Duret, in the history of his voyage to Lima,+ informs us, that the antient inhabitants of the island of Teneriff were tall and robust, but [138] meagre and tawny, and that most of them had flat noses.* These people, we see, had nothing in common with the Negroes, excepting the flat nose. The natives of Africa, in the same latitude with these islands, are Moors, and very tawny; but, like the islanders, they evidently belong to the race of whites.
The inhabitants of Cape Blac are Moors, and follow the religion of Mahomet. Like the Arabs, they wander about from place to place, pasturing their horses, camels, oxen, goats, and sheep. They trade with the negroes, who give them eight or ten slaves for a horse, and two or three for a camel.+ It is from these Moors that we have the gum Arabic, which they dissolve among their milk. They seldom eat flesh, and never kill their cattle, but when they are about to die of old age or disease.3
The Moors are separated from the Negroes by the river Senegal. They are only tawny, and live on the north side of this river; but the Negroes who inhabit the south side of it are absolutely black. The Moors wander through the country; but the Negroes are sedentary, and dwell in villages. The former are free and independent; the latter are the slaves of tyrants who oppress them. The Moors are small, meagre, and have a pusillanimous aspect; but they are sly and ingenious. The Negroes, on [139] the contrary, are large, plump, and well made; but they are simple and stupid. In fine, the country inhabited by the Moors consists of barren sands, where verdure appears only in very few places. But the Negro country is rich, fertile in pastures, and produces millet, and trees which are always green, but few of them bear fruit fit for food.
In some places, both on the north and south of the river Senegal, there is a species of men called Foulies, who seem to form the shade between the Moors and Negroes, and who are, perhaps, Mulattoes, produced by a mixture of the two nations. These Foulies are not entirely black, like the Negroes; but they are much browner than the Moors, and hold the middle rank between the two. They are likewise more advanced in civilization than the Negroes; they follow the religion of Mahomet, and are hospitable to strangers.*
The Cape de Verd islands are peopled with Mulattoes, sprung from the Portugueze who first settled there, and the Negroes whom they found on these islands. They are called Copper-coloured Negroes, because, though they resemble the Negroes in their features, they are less black, or rather yellowish. They are handsome and ingenious; but extremely indolent and idle. They live chiefly by hunting and fishing. They train their dogs to kill the wild goats, with [140] which the islands abound. They deliver their wives and daughter to the embraces of strangers, if they chuse to pay for this singular favour. For pins and other trifles, they sell paroquets, porcelain-shells, ambergris,* &c.
The first genuine Negroes we meet with, are those on the southern banks of the Senegal. These people, as well as those who inhabit the country comprehended between this river and that of Gambia, call themselves Jaloffs. They are very black, handsome, of a fine stature, and their features are not so disagreeable as those of the other Negroes. Some of them, and particularly the women, have very regular features. They have the same ideas of beauty with the Europeans; for they are fond of fine eyes, a small mouth, thin lips, and a well proportioned nose; they differ only with regard to the basis of the picture, a very black shining colour being absolutely necessary to form a beauty: Their skin is very fine and soft; and, abstracting from colour, they have as beautiful women as are to be met with in any other country in the world; their females are generally handsome, gay, active, and extremely amorous: They are peculiarly fond of white men, whom they caress with ardour, both to satisfy themselves, and in hopes of obtaining presents. In their attachment to strangers, they meet with no restraint from their husbands. But, though they offer [141] their wives, daughters, and sisters to strangers and conceive their honour to be injured by a refusal, their jealousy rises to such a pitch, when their wives transgress with men of their own nation, that they often beat, and even cut themselves with sabers. Those women, notwithstanding, have the tobacco-pipe perpetually in their mouths, and their skin, when they are heated, has a disagreeable smell, though it is not so strong as that of the other Negroes. They love dancing to the sound of the drum and calabash. All their movements in these dances consist of lascivious and indecent postures. They bathe often; and file their teeth, in order to render them more equal. Most of the young girls engrave figures of animals, flowers, &c. on their skin.
It is a general practice among the Negroe women, when traveling, to carry their children on their backs. Some have ascribed the flat nose and big bellies of the Negroes to this cause. The mother, in raising the child by sudden jerks, makes the child’s nose strike against her back; and the child, to avoid the frequent blows, keeps its head as far back as possible, by pushing its belly forward.* Their hair is black and crisped, like curled wool. It is by the hair and the colour that they chiefly differ from other men; for their features are not, perhaps, so dif- [142] ferent from those of the Europeans, as the Tartarian visage differs from that of a Frenchman. Father Tertre affirms, that, if most of the Negroes are flat nosed, it is owing to a general practice of the mothers, who depress the noses of their children as soon as they come into the world, and squeeze their lips to make them thick; and that those children, who chance to escape these operations, have elevated noses, thin lips, and as fine features as the Europeans. This remark, however, is only applicable to the Negroes of Senegal, who are the most handsome and most beautiful of all the race. Among all the other Negroes, flat noses and thick seem to be features bestowed on them by nature; These, instead of deformities, are regarded as marks of beauty, and supplied by art, when they happen to be denied by nature.
The Negroe women extremely prolific: They bring forth their children with great ease, and require no assistance. Their labours are followed by no troublesome consequences; for their strength is fully restored by a day, or, at most, two days repose. They make excellent nurses, and manage their children with great tenderness and affection. They are also more lively and alert than the men; and they even cultivate the virtues of discretion and temperance. Father Jaric informs us, that the Jaloff Negroe women, in order to accustom themselves to eat and speak little, fill their mouths with water in [143] the morning, and keep it there till the hour of breakfast.*
The Negroes of the island of Goree, and of the Cape de Verd coast, like those on the banks of the Senegal, are well made, and extremely black. They are so fond of a black shining complexion, that they despise such as want this perfection, in the same manner as tawny men are despised by the Europeans. Though strong and robust, they are exceedingly indolent, and cultivate neither corn, wines, nor fruits. Fish and millet are their chief articles of food; and they seldom eat flesh. They compare the Europeans to horses, because they eat herbs. But they are so passionately fond of spirits, that they sell their children, their parents, and even themselves, for brandy.+ They go almost naked, having only a cotton garment which covers them from the middle to about one half of the thigh; and they alledge [sic], that the heat of the climate permits them not to wear any more.3 Their poverty and bad chear [sic], however, however, hinder them not from being both fat and contented. They believe their country to be the finest in the universe; and that they are the handsomest men in the world, because they are the blackest: If their women betrayed no attachment to the white men, their colour would give them no uneasiness. [144]
Though the Negroes of Sierra-leona be not altogether so black as those of Senegal, they are not, however, as Struys alledges,* of a reddish or tawny colour. Like the Guiney Negroes, they are of a black less deep than the natives of Senegal. The general custom, among the Negroes of Guiney and Sierra-leona, of painting their bodies with red and other colours, might deceive Struys. They likewise paint a ring round their eyes with white, yellow, or red, and make rays of different colours upon their faces; and many of them cut, upon their skin, figures of plants and of animals. Their women are still more debauched than those of Senegal. Many of them are common prostitutes, without incurring the smallest dishonour. Both men and women keep their heads uncovered; and they shave or cut their hair, which is very short, in various modes. They wear ear-rings made of teeth, shells, horns, bits of wood, &c. which weigh three or four ounces. Some of them pierce their nostrils or their upper lip, for the purpose of suspending similar ornaments. Their garments consist of a kind of apron made of the bark of a tree, covered with apes skins; and to these skins they fix small bells. They sleep upon bull-rush mats; they eat fish, or flesh, when they can procure it; but yams and banana’s [sic] are their principal food.+ They [145] have no passion, but for their women, and no inclination to activity or labour. Their houses are wretched huts. They often continue to live in wild and barren places, though in the neighbourhood of rich valleys, hills covered with trees, green and fertile fields, intersected, in the most delightful manner, with rivers and brooks. But their indolence and stupidity make them insensible to every pleasure of this nature. The roads which lead from one place to another are generally twice as long as they ought; but they attempt not to render them shorter; and, though the means were pointed out to them, they never think of taking the shortest road, but mechanically follow the beaten track, and are not anxious about losing time, which they have no mode of measuring.
Though the Guiney Negroes enjoy good health, and have vigorous constitutions, they seldom reach old age. A Negro of 50 years is a very old man. Their premature commerce with the women is, perhaps, the cause of the brevity of their lives. Their children, when very young, are allowed to commit every species of debauchery;* and nothing is so rare among these people as to find a girl who can remember the time when she ceased to be a virgin.
The islands of St Thomas, of Annobona, &c. are inhabited by Negroes similar to those on the [146] neighbouring continent; but their numbers are few; because the Europeans have chased them off, and retained only such as they reduced to slavery. Both men and women go naked, excepting a small apron around their middle.* Mandelflo alledges that the Europeans who settle in the island of St Thomas, which is but a degree and half from the Equator, preserve their whiteness till the third generation; and he seems to insinuate that they turn black after that period. But it is not probably that this change can be so suddenly effected.
The Negroes on the coasts of Juda and Arada, are less black than those of Senegal, Guiney, and Congo. They prefer the flesh of dogs to all other meat, a roasted dog being generally the first dish presented at their feasts. This taste is not peculiar to the Negroes: the savages of North America, and some Tartarian nations are equally fond of dogs flesh. The Tartars are even said to castrate dogs, in order to fatten them and improve their flesh.+
Pigafetta, and Drake who seems to copy him verbatim, inform us, that the Negroes of Congo are black, but less so than those of Senegal. Their hair is generally black and crisped, though in some it is red. The men are of a middle stature; in some, the eyes are of a sea-green colour. Their lips are [147] not so thick as those of the other Negroes; and their features very much resemble those of the Europeans.*
In certain provinces of Congo, they have very singular customs. When a person dies in Loango, for example, they place the corpse on a kind of amphitheatre, raised about six feet above the ground, and in a sitting posture, with the hands resting on the knees. They dress him in his best garments, and then kindle fires all round the body. In proportion as the cloaths absorb the moisture, they cover him with fresh garments, till the body be perfectly dry; after which, they bury him with great pomp. In the province of Malimba, the wife ennobles the husband. When the King dies, and leaves only a single daughter, if she has arrived at the age of puberty, she becomes absolute mistress of the kingdom. She begins her reign by making a tour round her dominions. In all the towns and villages through which she passes, the whole men are obliged to appear before her, immediately upon her arrival, and she chooses the man whom she fancies most to pass the night with her. At her return from her journey, she sends for the man who has been so fortunate as to please her best, and she instantly marries him. After marriage, her power terminates, and devolves entirely on her husband. These facts I have ex- [148] tracted from M. de la Brosse’s travels along the coast of Angola in the year 1738. He adds a fact not less singular. “These Negroes,” says he, “are extremely vindictive, of which I shall give a convincing proof. They daily demanded of us some brandy for the use of the King and chief men of the town. One day this request was denied, and we had soon reason to repent it; for all the French and English officers having gone a fishing on a small lake near the sea-coast, they erected a tent for the purpose of dressing and eating the fish they had caught. When they were amusing themselves after their repast, seven or eight Negroes, who were the chiefs of Loango, arrived in sedans, and presented their hands, according to the custom of the country. These Negroes privately rubbed the officers hands with a subtile poison, which acts instantaneously; and, accordingly, five Captains, and three surgeons, died on the spot,” &c.
When the Negroes of Congo have a pain in their head, or any other place of the body, they make a small wound in the place affected, and apply to it a small horn with a hole in its middle, by means of which they suck out the blood till the pain abates.*
The Negroes of Senegal, of Gambia, of Cape de Verd, of Angola, and of Congo, are of a finer black than those of the coasts of Juda, Is- [149] singi, Arada, and the adjacent provinces. When in health, they are all black; but, when sick, they become yellowish, or copper-coloured.* In the French islands, the Negroes of Angola are preferred, for their strength, to those of Cape de Verd: But, when heated, they smell so rank, that the places they pass through are infected with the stench for more than a quarter of an hour. The Cape de Verd Negroes do not smell nearly so strong as those of Angola: They have also a finer and blacker skin; they are better made; their features are softer; their dispositions are more gentle; and their stature is more commodious.+ The Negroes of Guiney are very proper for cultivating the ground and other laborious offices. Those of Senegal are not so strong; but they are more ingenious, and better adapted for domestic services.3 Father Charlevoix tells us, that the Senegal Negroes are the most handsome, most docile, and best suited for domestic uses; that the Bambaras are larger, but that they are all rogues; that the Aradas are best acquainted with the culture of the earth; that the Congos are the smallest in size, and excellent fishers, but that they are much addicted to desertion; that the Nagos are the most humane, the Mondongos the most cruel, the Mimes the most resolute, most capricious, and most subject to despair; and that the Creole Negroes, [150] from whatever nations they derive their origin, retain nothing of their parents but the colour and the spirit of slavery. They are more ingenious, rational, and dexterous, but more slothful and debauched, than the African Negroes. He adds, that the genius of all the Guiney Negroes is extremely limited; that some of them appear to be perfectly stupid, not being able to count beyond the number of three; that they never think spontaneiously; that they have no memory, the past and the future being equally unknown to them; that the most sprightly of them have some humour, and make tolerable mimics; that they are extremely cunning, and would rather die than tell a secret; that, in general, they are gentle, humane, docile, simple, credulous, and even superstitious; and that they are faithful, and brave, and, if properly disciplined, would make good soldiers.*
Though the Negroes have little genius, their feelings are extremely acute. According to the manner they are treated, they are gay or melancholy, laborious or slothful, friends or enemies. When well fed, and not maletreated [sic], they are contented, joyous, ready for every employment, and the satisfaction of their mind is painted in their countenance. But, when oppressed and abused, they grow peevish, and often die of melancholy. Of benefits and of abuse, they are exceedingly sensible, and against those who [151] injure them they bear a mortal hatred. On the other hand, whey they contract an affection to a master, there is no office, however hazardous, which they will not boldy [sic] execute, to demonstrate their zeal and attachment. They are naturally affectionate, and have an ardent love to their children, friends, and countrymen.* The little they possess they freely distribute among the necessitous, without any other motive than that of pure compassion for the indigent.
Upon the whole, it is apparent, that the unfortunate Negroes are endowed with excellent hearts, and possess the seeds of every human virtue. I cannot write their history, without lamenting their miserable condition. Is it not more than enough to reduce men to slavery, and to oblige them to labour perpetually, without the capacity of acquiring property? To these, is it necessary to add cruelty, and blows, and to abuse them worse than brutes? Humanity revolts against those odious oppressions which result from avarice, and which would have been daily renewed, had not the laws given a friendly check to the brutality of masters, and fixed limits to the sufferings of their slaves. They are forced to labour; and yet the coarsest food is dealt out to them with a sparing hand. They support, say their obdurate task-masters, hunger without inconvenience; a single European meal is sufficient provision to a Negro for three days; however little they eat or sleep, they are always [152] equally strong, and equally fit for labour.* How can men, in whose breasts a single sentiment of humanity remains unextinguished, adopt such detestable maxims? How dare they, by such barbarous and diabolical arguments, attempt to palliate those oppressions which originate solely from their thirst for gold? But, let us abandon those hardened monsters to perpetual infamy, and return to our subject.
Of the inhabitants of the coasts and of the interior parts of Africa, from Cape Negro to Cape de Voltes, an extent of about 400 leagues, we have no knowledge. We only know, that these men are less black than the other Negroes, and that they resemble the Hottentots, with whom they border on the south. The Hottentots, on the contrary, are well known, and described by almost every voyager. They are not Negroes, but Caffres, and would be only of a tawny colour, if they did not blacken their skin with grease and paint. M. Kolbe, who has given a very accurage description of these people, regards them, however, as Negroes. He assures us, that they have all short, black, frizled [sic], woolly hair; and that he never saw a single Hottentot with long hair.+ But this circumstance is not sufficient to make us consider them as genuine Negroes. In the first place, their colour is totally different; for M. Kolbe tells us, that they are [153] olive, and never black, though they employ every method to darken their skin. In the next place, it seems to be equally difficult to pronounce concerning their hair; for they never either comb or wash it, but daily rub on their heads vast quantities of grease, soot, and dust, which make their hair resemble a fleece of wool stuffed with dirt.* Besides, their dispositions are different from those of the Negroes. The latter are sedentary, love cleanliness, and are easily reconciled to servitude. The Hottentots, on the contrary, are a wandering, independent people, frightfully nasty, and extremely jealous of their liberty. These differences are more than sufficient to convince us that the Hottentots are not of the same race with the Negroes.
Gama, who first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in the Bay of St Helena on the 4th of November 1497. He describes the inhabitants as being black, of small stature, and having a very disagreeable aspect: But he says not that they were naturally black like the Negroes; and, doubtless, they only seemed black to him by the grease and soot with which they are perpetually covered. This voyager adds, that the sound of their voice resembled sighing; that they were clothed in the skins of beasts; and that their arms were, bludgeons hardened with the fire, and pointed with the horn of some animal.+ It is [154] apparent, therefore, that the Hottentots practice no arts in common with the Negroes.
We are informed by the Dutch voyagers, that the savages to the north of the Cape are smaller than the Europeans; that their colour is a reddish brown; that they are extremely ugly, and endeavour to increase their blackness with paint; and that their hair resembles that of a man who has hung long on a gibbet.* In another place, they tell us, that they Hottentots are of the colour of Mulattoes; that their visage is greatly deformed; that they are of a middle size, but meagre, and exceedingly nimble in the chace [sic]; and that their language resembles the clucking of a Turkey cock.+ Father Tachard says, that, though in general their hair be woolly like that of the Negroes; yet many of them have long hair which floats upon their shoulders. He even adds, that some of them are as white as Europeans, but that they blacken their skin with grease and the powder of a certain black stone; and that their women are naturally fair; but, to please their husbands, they paint themselves black.3 Ovington tells us, that the Hottentots are more tawny than the other Indians; that no people resemble the Negroes more in colour and features, but that they are not so black; and their hair is not so crisped, nor their nose so flat.4 [155]
From all these testimonies, it is plain that the Hottentots are not true Negroes, but blacks beginning to approach towards whiteness, as the Moors are whites approaching to blackness. These Hottentots, moreover, are a very singular species of savages. Their women, who are commonly much less than the men, have a kind of excrescence, or hard broad skin, which originates above the os pubis, and descends, like an apron, to the middle of their thighs.* Thevenot says the same thing of the Egyptian women, but that, instead of allowing this excrescence to grow, they burn it off with hot irons. With regard to the women of Egypt, this fact is very doubtful. But it is certain, that all the women who are natives of the Cape are subject to this monstrous deformity, which they uncover to those who have the curiosity to look at it. The men are all half eunuchs, not naturally, but by an absurd custom of cutting gout one of the testicles about the age of eight years. M. Kolbe saw this operation performed on a young Hottentot. The circumstances with which this ceremony is accompanied are so singular that they deserve to be recited.
After rubbing the young man with grease taken from the entrails of a sheep which is slain for the purpose, they lay him on his back on the ground, tie his hands and feet, and three or four of his friends hold him. Then the priest [156], (for it is a religious rite), armed with a sharp knife, makes an incision, and cuts away the left testicle,* and puts in its place a ball of grease of the same size, prepared with some medicinal herbs. He then sews up the wound with the bone of a small bird, which serves for a needle, and a thread made of the tendon of a sheep. The operation being thus finished, the patient is untied. But the priest, before quitting him, rubs him all over with the warm grease of a new-killed sheep, or rather pours the grease upon him so copiously, that, when cool, it forms a kind of crust. At the same time, he rubs him so roughly, that the young man, who has already suffered too much, is covered with sweat, and fumes like a capon on a spit. The operator next makes furrows with his nails in this crust of grease, from one end of the body to another, and then pisses in them. After which, he again rubs the patient, and fills up the furrows with fresh grease. The young man is now instantly abandoned, and left alone in a condition rather resembling death than life: He is obliged to crawl, in the best manner he can, into a hut purposely erected near the place where the operation is performed. There he either perishes or recovers, without assistance, or any other nourishment than the grease that covers him, and which he may lick, if he chuses. At the end of two days, he generally recovers, comes out of [157] his hut, and presents himself to his friends: And to prove that he is perfectly cured, he runs before them with the swiftness of a stag.*
All the Hottentots have broad flat noses, which would not be the case, if their mothers did not flatten them immediately after birth; for they regard a prominent nose as a great deformity. They have also very thick lips, white teeth, bushy eye-brows, large heads, meagre bodies, and small limbs. They seldom live above 40 years. The short duration of their lives is unquestionably occasioned by the nastiness in which they perpetually wallow, and the putrid flesh on which they chiefly feed. As most travellers have written fully concerning the manners of this dirty people,+ I shall only add one fact more, which is related by Tavernier. The Dutch, says he, carried off a Hottentot girl a few days after her birth, brought her up among themselves, and she soon became as white as any European. From this fact, he concludes, that all the Hottentots would be equally fair, if they did not perpetually daub themselves with dirt and black paints.
Along the African coast, beyond the Cape of Good Hope, we meet with the territory of Natal, [158] the inhabitants of which differ greatly from the Hottentots. They are better made, and less ugly. They are likewise naturally blacker; their visage is oval, their nose well proportioned, and their teeth are white; their aspect is agreeable, and their hair is naturally crisped. But, like the Hottentots, they have some taste for grease; for they wear bonnets made of the tallow of oxen. These bonnets are from eight to ten inches high, and they spend a good deal of time in preparing them: For this purpose, the tallow must be well refined; they apply but little of it at a time, and mingle it so compleatly [sic] with their hair, that it never falls off.* M. Kolbe alledges, that their noses are flat from their birth, and that they use no arts to flatten hem; that they do not stammer, or strike the palate with their tongue, like the Hottentots; that they build houses, cultivate the ground, and sow a species of maize or Turkish corn, of which they make ale, a drink unknown to the Hottentots.+
Beyond the territory of Natal, we meet with those of Sofala and Monomotapa. According to Pigafetta, the people of Sofala are black, but taller and thicker than the other Caffres. This author places the Amazones in the neighbourhood of the kingdom of Sofala.3 But nothing can be more uncertain than what has been affirmed with regard to those female warriors. The na- [159] tives of Monomotapa, say the Dutch travellers, are tall, handsome, black, and have fine complexions. The young girls go naked, wearing only a thin piece of cotton stuff upon their middle; but put on garments as soon as they get husbands. These people, though very black, are different from the Negroes. Their features are neither so coarse nor so ugly; their bodies have no bad smell; and they can neither support servitude nor hard labour. Father Charlevoix tells us, that he has seen blacks of Monomotapa and Madagascar in America; but that they could never be trained to labour, and soon perished.*
The natives of Madagascar and of Mosambique, are more or less black. The inhabitants of Madagascar have the hair on the crown of their heads not so much crisped as those of Mosambique. Neither of them are true Negroes; and, though those on the coast are very submissive to the Portuguese, the people in the interior parts of the continent are extremely savage, and jealous of their liberty. Both men and women go perfectly naked; they eat the flesh of elephants, and sell the ivory to strangers.+ Madagascar is chiefly inhabited by blacks and whites, who, though very tawney, seem to be of a different race of men. The hair of the former is black and [160] crisped; that of the latter is fairer, less frizled, and longer. It is a common opinion, that these whites derive their origin from the Chinese. But Francis Cauche properly remarks, that they seem to be of European extraction; for he assures us, that all of them he saw had neither flat faces nor noses, like the Chinese. He likewise says, that these whites are fairer than the Castillans; that their hair is long; that the blacks are not flat-nosed like those on the continent; and that their lips are thin. In this island there are also many persons of an olive or tawny colour, who probably proceed from a mixture of the blacks and whites. The same traveller informs us, that the inhabitants round the bay of St Augustine are tawny; that they have no beard; that their hair is long and smooth; that they are tall and handsome; and, lastly, that they are all circumcised, though they probably never heard of the law of Mahomet, for they have neither temples, mosques, nor religion.* The French first landed and established a settlement on this island; but it was not supported.+ When they arrived, they found the white men above described; and they remarked, that the blacks had a great respect for these whites.3 The island of Madagascar is extremely populous, and abounds in cattle and pasturage. Both men and women are exceedingly debauched; and public [161] prostitution is not followed with dishonour. They love dancing, singing, and similar amusements. Though indolent, they have some knowledge of the mechanic arts; and, though they have no moveables in their houses, but lie upon matts [sic], they have husbandmen, smiths, carpenters, potters, and even goldsmiths. They eat their meat almost raw, and devour the skins of their oxen, after singing the hair; they likewise eat the wax with the honey. The common people go almost naked; but the more opulent wear drawers or petticoats of cotton and silk.*
The natives of the interior parts of Africa are too little known to admit of description. Those called Zingues by the Arabians are black, and almost perfectly savage. Marmol tells us, that they multiply prodigiously, and would over-run the adjacent country, if numbers of them were not swept off, from time to time, by a great mortality occasioned by hot winds.
Upon the whole, it appears, that the Negroes are a different species of Blacks from the Caffres. But, from the descriptions we have given, it is still more apparent, that the differences of colour are produced by the climate; and that the peculiarities in features depend much upon the customs which take place among different nations, such as, flattening the nose, pulling the hair off the eye-brows, lengthening the ears, thickening the [162] lips, making the face broad, &c. Nothing can be a stronger proof of the influence of climate upon colour, than to find, under the same latitude, and distinct from each other more than 1000 leagues, people so similar as the Nubians and natives of Senegal; and to find, that the Hottentots, who must have originated from a black race, are the whitest people in Africa, for no other reason but because their country is the coldest. If the tawny nation on one side of the river Senegal, and the perfect blacks on the other, occur as an objection, I must refer to what was above remarked concerning the effects of food, which has a great influence on colour, as well as many other customs and modes of living: And, if an example be demanded, I shall produce one from the brute creation, which every man is in a condition to verify. The flesh of the hares that live in the plains and moist grounds, is whiter than that of those which inhabit mountainous or dry regions; and, even in the same part of the country, those that feed in the meadows are perfectly different from those that dwell on the hills. The colour of the flesh proceeds from that of the blood and other humours of the body, the qualities of which necessarily depend on the nature of the food.
The origin of black men has, at all times, been an object of inquiry. The antients, who knew only those of Nubia, regarded them as the last or terminating shade of the tawny colour, [163] and confounded them with the Ethiopians, and other African nations, who, though extremely brown, belong more to the white than to the black race. They thought that the differences of colour among the human species proceeded solely from the varieties of climate, and that blackness was occasioned by a perpetual exposure to the hot rays of the sun. This opinion, though very probable, was much weakened, after it was discovered that the inhabitants of more southern climates, and even under the Equator itself, as those of Melinda and Mosambique, were not black, but very tawny; and when it was farther discovered, that blacks transported into more temperate climates, lost nothing of their original hue, but communicated it to their descendants. If we attend, however, to the migrations of different people, and to the time necessary to produce a change in their colour, we shall, perhaps, find the opinion of the antients to have been well founded; for the natives of this part of Africa are Nubians, and will preserve their original blackness as long as they continue to live under the same climate, and mix not with the whites. But the Ethiopians, the Abyssinians, and even the natives of Melinda, though they derive their origin from the whites, their religion and customs being the same with those of the Arabians, are, however, more tawny than the inhabitants of the southern parts of Arabia. This circumstance alone evinces, that, [164] even among the same race of men, the different degrees of blackness depend, more or less, upon the heat of the climate. Many ages are, perhaps necessary to change the white colour into perfect blackness; but it is probable, that, in a succession of generations, a white people, transported from the north to the Equator, would undergo this change, especially if they adopted the manners, and used the food of the new country.
The objection drawn from the difference of features is not unsurmountable; for the features of a Negro, who has not been purposely deformed in his infancy, differ not more from those of an European, than a Tartar differs from a Chinese, or a Circassian from a Greek: And, with regard to the hair, the nature of it depends so much on the quality of the skin, that any differences which take place in it ought to be considered as merely accidental; for, in the same country, and even in the same village, we find every possible variety of hair. In France, for example, there are some men whose hair is as short and as crisped as that of a Negro: Besides, heat and cold have great influence upon the colour of the hair both men and other animals. In the northern regions, black hair is seldom or never seen: And squirrels, hares, weasels, and several other animals, are white in the north, but brown or gray in more southern latitudes. The effects produced by cold and heat are even [165] so remarkable, that, in Sweden, certain animals as the hares, are gray during the summer, and perfectly white in winter.*
But the New World affording no examples of true Blacks, is the strongest argument against my hypothesis; and it appears, at first sight, to be almost insuperable. If blackness were the effect of heat alone, why do we not find Negroes or black men in the Antilles, in Mexico, in Santa-fe, in Guaina, in the country of the Amazones, or in Peru; since these countries of America are situated under the same latitude with Senegal, Guiney, and Angola in Africa? If the different colours of the human species were occasioned by the climate, or the distance from the Pole, we should have found, in the Brasils, in Paraguay, or in Chili, men similar to the Caffres and Hottentots. But, before attempting to remove this objection, it is necessary to give a short description of the various American nations; after which we shall be the more qualified to make just comparisons, and to draw general conclusions.
* See Marmol, tom. 3. p. 29. 33 [back to page 132].
* Marmol, tom. 3. p. 68 [back to page 133].
+ Recueil des voy. De la Comp. des Indes de Holl. Tom. 4. p. 33 [back to page 133].
* Lettres edisantes, Recueil 4. p. 349 [back to back 134].
+ See Voyages de la Comp. de Holl. Tom. 4. p. 34 [back to back 134].
+ Lettres edisantes, recueil 4. p. 349 [On this page the printer departed from normal practice and began with the note marked with the “+” sign rather than the normal asterisk; back to back 134].
3. The author, instead of winged insects, should have said caterpillars [Smellie’s note, back to page 135].
* See Pigafetta, p. 56 [back to page 136].
+ Marmol, p. 107 [back to page 136].
* See l’histoire de la premiere decouverte des Canaries, par Bontier et Verriere, p. 251 [back to page 138].
+ Page 72 [back to page 138].
* Hist. gen. des. voyages, par M. l’Abbe Prevot [sic], tom. 2. p. 230 [back to page 139].
+ Voyage de la Maire. p. 46 [back to page 139].
3. Ibid. p. 66 [back to page 139].
* Voyage du le Maire, p. 75. Marmol, tom. 1. p. 34 [back to page 140].
* See les voyages de Roberts, p. 387. Struys, tom 1. p. 11. Biervillas, p. 15 [back to page 141].
* See le Maire, p. 144. Le Pere du Jarie, p. 364. et le Pere du Tertre, p. 493 [back to page 142].
* See l’Hist. par Pere du Jaric, part 3. p. 365 [back to page 144].
+ See le Voy. De M. de Gennes, p. 15 [back to page 144].
3. Lettres edisiantes, recueil 11. p. 48 [back to page 144].
* Tom. 1. p. 22 [back to page 145].
+ See Indiae Orient. Part 2. in qua Johannis Hugonis Linstcontani &c. navigation, p. 11 [back to page 145].
* See le Voy. De Guinee par Guill. Bosman, p. 143 [back to page 146].
* Pyrard, p. 16 [back to page 147].
+ Noveaux Voy. Des isles, tom 4. p. 164 [back to page 147].
* See Indiae Orient. part. I. p. 5. and Drake’s Voyage. P. 110 [back to page 148].
* Pigafetta, p. 51 [back to page 149].
* Noveaux voy. Aux isles de l’Amerique, tom. 4. p. 138 [back to page 150].
+ L’hist des Antilles, par le Pere du Tertre, p. 493 [back to page 150].
3. Noveaux voy. Aux isles, tom. 4. p. 116 [back to page 150].
* Hist. de St Dominique, par le Pere Charlevois [back to page 151].
* Hist. des Antilles, p. 483 [back to page 152].
* Hist de St Dominique, p. 468 [back to page 153].
+ Descript. Du Cap de Bonne Esperance, par M. Kolbe, p. 95 [back to page 153].
* Descript. Du Cap de Bonne Esperance, par. M. Kolbe, p. 92 [back to page 154].
+ Hist. gen. des Voy. Par l’Albe [sic] Prevot, tom. 1. p. 22 [back to page 154].
* Voy. De la Comp. de Hollande, p. 218 [back to page 155].
+ Voyages de Spitsberg, p. 443 [back to page 155].
3. Le previer voy. Du Pere Tachard, p. 108 [back to page 155].
4. Voy. D’Ovington, p. 194 [back to page 155].
* See Descript. du Cap. par. M. Kolbe, tom. 1. p. 91 and voyage de Courlai, p. 291 [back to page 156].
* Tavernier says it is the right, tom. 4. p. 297 [back to page 157].
* Descript. du Cap par M. Kolbe, p. 275 [back to page 158].
+ The reader may consult the following voyagers: Kolbe; voy. de la Comp. Holl.; Robert Lade, tom. 1. p. 88; Ovington, Loubere, tom. 2. p. 134. Tachard, p. 95. Biervillas, part. I. p. 34. Tavernier, tom. 4. p. 296. Francois Leguat, tom. 2. p. 154. Dampier, tom. 2. p. 255, &c. [back to page 158].
*Dampier, tom. 2. p. 393 [back to page 159].
+ Descript. du Cap. tom. 1. p. 136 [back to page 159].
3. See Indiae Orient. part. 1. p. 54 [back to page 159].
* Hist. de St Dominique, p. 499 [back to page 160].
+ See Recueil des Voyages, tom 3. p. 623; Le Voy. de Moquet, p. 265; et La Navigation de Jean Hugues Lintscot, p. 20 [back to page 160].
* Voyage de Francois Cauche, p. 45 [back to page 161].
+ Voy. de Flacour [back to page 161].
3. Voy. de M. Delon [back to page 161].
* Le Voyage de Flacour, p. 90.; Struys, tom. 1. p.32. Pyrard, p. 38 [back to page 162].
* Lepus apud nos aestate cinereus, hieme simper albus; Linnaei Faun. Suec. P. 8 [back to page 166].